Zebrafish larvae as a model for the evaluation of inorganic arsenic and tributyltin bioconcentration

The European REACH legislation establishes the need to study the toxicity, persistence and bioaccumulation of those chemicals with an exceeding production of 100 tons and/or chemicals considered PBTs substances (Persistence, Bioaccumulation and Toxicity). Currently, the OECD technical guideline 305 is the most used protocol to determine bioconcentration factors of contaminants in aquatic environments. However, this procedure implies high cost and amount of adult fishes. Zebrafish (Danio Rerio) has been selected since this animal model has several advantageous features over other vertebrates, mainly fast embryonic development and easy growth. The analytical methodology here developed has been applied to calculate the bioconcentration factors (BCFs) of two contaminants: inorganic arsenic and tributyltin (measured as arsenic and tin). The method is based on the use of an ultrasonic probe assisted extraction for accelerating the sample treatment followed by detection using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry with Zeeman correction (ZGFAAS). Results obtained for the BCFs values are in good agreement with previously reported data on freshwater aquatic organisms. In the case of arsenic, after exposing larvae to concentrations of 5 and 50 μg L−1, very low BCFs were observed (between 2.2 and 9.5); while for tributyltin, the BCFs observed were within the range 840–1280 after exposure to concentrations of 0.2 and 2.0 μg L−1, respectively. This study shows the use of zebrafish larvae together with the proposed analytical approach as a promising alternative to the OECD 305 test to evaluate the BCFs of classical and emergent contaminants.

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► Zebrafish larvae as model to test bioaccumulation.
► High bioaccumulation values of TBT and low bioaccumulation values of inorganic arsenic.
► Rapid and simple determination methodologies to determinate tin and arsenic in complicated samples.
► Cost of bioaccumulation test is at least 10 times lower.